Chapter 2 #2
Ella headed off for the living room and waited while Dalton hoisted his big duffel again.
It wasn’t until they were heading up the stairs together that she caught a hint of his masculine scent, and it hit her that she was alone with the big man on the narrow staircase.
She hurried the rest of the way up the stairs, surprised at herself for such a thought.
“Your room is at the end of the hall,” she said quietly to fill the silence. “The bathroom is right across from it.”
He didn’t reply, but she could picture him nodding, that intense expression in his eyes.
When they reached the top of the steps, she led him down the hall and into Andy’s room.
It wasn’t that they had preserved the room like a museum. Ella had made up the bed for any number of visiting guests. And Dad had moved his ever-expanding collection of old western paperbacks to the wooden built-in shelves last year, right beside Andy’s sci fi adventure books.
Dad would sit in Andy’s wooden chair once in a while, alternately reading and gazing out the window.
And Mom came up from time to time too. She had a not-so-secret trove of yarn in a bin under the bed.
Ella assumed they were both making excuses to visit quietly with Andy, as she often did whenever she missed her big brother the most.
But it still felt odd to come in here tonight, with a man who was a stranger to Ella, but had been so close with Andy himself.
“I’ll just make up the bed,” she said, busying herself so as not to meet his eyes.
She stripped the clean sheets that she’d only put on a few days before, and pulled fresh ones from the trunk at the foot of the bed.
“That’s him,” Dalton said.
She turned to see the man bent over Andy’s desk, looking at a photo in a frame that had been festooned with tiny shells, glitter, and glue.
“That’s us,” Ella said, smiling. “I made the frame when we were kids.”
In the photo, little Andy held tiny Ella on a golden beach, their hair flying back in a sudden gust of wind, both of them laughing.
Ella turned back to her work, not wanting to share the tender smile she couldn’t hold in from just thinking about the memory. She didn’t remember the summer day on the beach, but she did remember presenting Andy with the framed photo on Christmas morning and how he’d fussed over it and over her.
“That’s us,” Dalton echoed softly after a moment.
This time when she turned, he was examining a photo of Andy with his unit on one of the built-in shelves.
She moved to look at it with him, and sure enough, there was Dalton Tyler, his bright blue eyes twinkling as he stood right beside her brother. It was no wonder he’d looked so familiar earlier. She’d probably looked at that photo a hundred times.
“Thanks for having me here,” Dalton said softy as he bent to deposit his duffel on the floor. “I can get my own place if it starts to be a burden having a guest.”
Inwardly, Ella wondered how long the man was planning to stay. But outwardly, she simply smiled.
“It’s no burden,” she told him. “You’re a friend of Andy’s, so you’re family here. Mom and Dad would tell you the same.”
Dalton Tyler’s cerulean gaze captured hers for just a heartbeat, and she felt more seen than she had in a long time.
Then he moved to the foot of the bed, away from her.
“There are towels in the top drawer,” she told him, pointing to the dresser. “Please let us know if there’s anything else you need.”
“Good night, Ella,” Dalton said, his voice slightly rough.
“Good night,” she replied, slipping back out to the hallway.
As she closed the door behind her, she heard the unmistakable creak of Dove’s bed in the next room, followed by light footsteps on the floor.
“I’m coming, Birdie,” she called to her daughter, not wanting to disturb the tired soldier with the thousand questions Dove would surely have if she wanted to delay bedtime.
Dove was standing by her bed when Ella came in, and she didn’t look a bit sleepy.
“Someone’s here,” Dove said softly, her eyes wide. “Is it my cousins?”
“No, my love,” Ella told her. “This is a special, grownup guest.”
“Why is it a special guest?” Dove asked, looking a little disappointed that it wasn’t a cousin.
Ella could hardly blame her. It had to be hard to be the only child in the house. Ella had always had Andy when she was small.
“He was good friends with your Uncle Andy,” Ella told Dove.
“Can I see him?” Dove asked.
“He’s tired right now,” Ella said. “He just finished up his work for the Army, and he came all the way here to see us, so he needs a good night’s sleep. But you’ll meet him tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Dove said, letting Ella walk her back to the bed.
“You’re such a great kid,” Ella said, watching her daughter crawl dutifully under the covers.
“I know,” Dove told her with a happy smile. “That’s why I get to ride Goldie.”
“That’s right,” Ella said, nodding.
Goldie, the old palomino pony, was the only horse that had ever lived on the farm during Ella’s lifetime. Ella and Andy had spent plenty of time hanging out with her in the paddock as kids, brushing her mane and bringing her carrots and apples.
Goldie was no spring chicken, but Dove was allowed to ride her sometimes since she was gentle with her.
“I love you more than the moon,” Dove said softly.
“I love you more than all the stars,” Ella told her, bending to kiss her forehead.
Slipping back out into the hallway to her own room, which was on the other side of Dove’s, Ella couldn’t help thinking of the man in her brother’s room.
As she got ready for bed, she found herself wondering if he had always been quiet, or if something he had seen or done had left him with that slightly haunted look in his eyes.
She gazed at her own eyes in the mirror.
They were large and dark brown, so unlike Dalton’s.
There was a touch of sadness in them when she let her guard down, but Ella reminded herself often that her pain was shared pain.
She felt the deep loneliness suffered by every widow.
And her heart was broken just like the hearts of every family member of a serviceman who never came home.
There was no mystery to Ella’s feelings.
She tried to focus on how lucky she was to have family all around her to take care of and love.
Doesn’t Dalton Tyler want to go back to his own family?
But the way he had been talking made it sound like he wasn’t planning on going back to them any time soon.
That thought brought back a memory, and with it a sudden pang of guilt that almost left her breathless.
Climbing into bed, she tried to put the memory out of her head, but she couldn’t escape it. The sheet and quilt were freezing, and she shivered for a moment as her body heat warmed them up, her mind racing all the while.
Just go to sleep, she told herself firmly. It was only a feeling. You don’t need to overthink it. Just let it pass.
But Ella tossed and turned for a long time before she finally drifted off.